Can you randomnize?

The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine that I met in the poker room a few years ago. I did not like him when I first met him but I appreciated his game. There are a few of my friends that I have that this happened also...hmmm so weird! Anyhow, we were talking about his recent tournament cash and how I had not received my 10% yet and how I gave him my off shore account number and it is taking too long and what the hell! Oops sorry about the ramble. We laughed and since I have not been playing, just studying, writing, and teaching about poker I wanted to hear how he smashed it. Basically he was in poker heaven, eight ultra tight players and a loose aggressive who understood when to open. The ultra tights would not defend against a raise and the blinds were stolen by either my buddy or the other guy. He continued to explain that later he would get lucky in certain spots but he picked his fights very well...as I expected. He continued to explain how he finally could read them like some guys we both know very well. We got onto the subjec on how we would be able to read them for the rest of their poker lives...why? Ahh, exactly the reason why I am writing this and if you are reading this, bub, this is based on our conversation that we had as I drove across the causeway.
We have known players for several years that play the same way they have not nor will not change their game up. When you see them shove in certain spots you know what they have, if you see them overbet, you know what they have.
It was a fun talk and it made me wonder why do people over play pocket jacks? Why do they play A10 correctly but over play AJ? Some of the reasons might be because they always lose with that hand or they may have lost a huge pot with that hand and it is stuck in their sub-conscious and it tells them to take the blinds and move on...
In order to win on a consistent basis...you have to open AJ as you would AK, you have to play JJ as you would QQ. In the long run it will pay off. This one is short and sweet but I just had to put this out there...don't let that little mental devil mess you up, you know how to play to get the most do it, if you miss dump it. One last thing...do not get married to your hand! Pocket Aces with a flop of J109 with two others in the hand (this is an easy example but I have seen lunchboxes get busted with their aces and show them because KQsuited called and the aces should have won.) FOLD!

This freaking post was so random!!! BE COOL!!!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

A look at Level three play...

I picked up a good book to re-read, "Your Worst Poker Enemy" by Allan N. Schoonmaker, out of my library and I was just thinking about this play that occurred a time ago between two people that I know. Charlie, who is currently living in Vegas and deals at Ceasers. Wayne H. a well known high limit grinder, want to talk about a guy who I have never seen get felted, this is the guy. Charlie a time ago was grinding out and playing in a lot of games,5-5 NLH, 5-10 NLH, 10-25 Pot limit Omaha. Wayne H. has been around for a long time, older gentleman who wears a ball cap 95% of the time. He has played just about anywhere in the United states and is usually walking around at a large tournament looking for a good cash game to sit in. Both of these guys know their way around a poker table.

So, I am sitting in a 5-5 NLH game next to Charlie, he is in the two seat, I am in the three seat and Wayne is in the ten seat, right next to the dealer...he likes that seat, go figure. I am under the gun and fold. Two limpers to Wayne, on the button, who pops it to about $20. Now Wayne has not been involved in any hands for about an hour, since he had sat down. Charlie knows Wayne, as would any regular at Harrahs. Small blind folds, Charlie, big blind, contemplates for a few seconds and calls in a theatrical, splash my chips kinda way. One of the original limpers calls also. SIDE NOTE: Could the limper have a strong hand to call a tight player and a hesitating BB flat call? Odds? Hand strength? Just wondering...nothing to do with the rest of this...very random huh?
The flop...babies, 2c5h7d, rainbow at that. Charlie checks, limper checks, Wayne...checks! Turn card is a 10s, Charlie bets 3/4 of the pot, limper folds and Wayne pops it another $100. Charlie goes into the think tank, he's making hand movements and talking to himself and shaking his head and nodding his head and shaking his head and you know what I mean...sorta Gus Hansen like. SIDE NOTE: I have this read on Wayne, I knew at this moment that he was semi-bluffing...also if he did have the best he would not have put in the raise here he calls and makes his play on the river, yet I was sort of right and I was sort of wrong...lets read and you will see.
Charlie, reluctantly, calls! So now I am sitting there going what the hell, A10 Charlie(I was thinking of a lot of hands but will not list them here)? I can see that Charlie is hurting because he does not know where he is with Wayne and he is trying very hard to put him on a range of hands here but can not figure out why he raised other than to get him off his hand, thus the reluctant call...hmmm?
The river is a 3c, Charlie, checks, Wayne counts out his chips, now at this time at Harrahs you could buy in for whatever you wanted, Wayne looks at Charlie's stack of $1200 and casually...CASUALLY tosses in two pink chips...$500 a piece! Charlie starts to pull his hair out! Almost, literally. So we have over $200 in the pot, an F'ed up board and an over sorry super over bet of $1000...WHY are you SQUIRMING Charlie! He literally asks for time stands up and is going through what can beat him and ruling them out...Wayne could have played anything from that position...wait until I tell yah what he played...GOSH!
Somebody, after five long minutes, asks if they can call clock...I step in and say "NO! let him think it out, that's a lot of money." Usually when I say no people tend to listen, wonder why?
Finally Charlie says..."I've seen you make this play with absolutely nothing and they always laid it down to you...I call!"
Wayne sticks his head out and non-chalantly says, "Huh, you call?" Looks back at his cards and looks back at Charlie. Charlie, who is very eager now, flips his cards over...two black Kings!
"I know that, Charlie." Wayne said. "But you let me get there, this time."
Wayne tables the A4spades!
Charlie yells something goes over and shakes Wayne's hand and picks up the rest of his chips, says bye to me and leaves with a red ass.
I talked to Charlie later and asked him why he did not raise back into Wayne on the turn, he said that he wanted Wayne to make that play on the river but it was bigger than he thought and he HOPED it was a bluff.
Egads, and that was an actual hand that happened a while ago but these two were level threeing it the whole time.
Any questions?

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Inspiration or a Death Wish...who knows?

I was inspired today as I listened to my buddy, Jeff, tell me what has been going on in his poker life. First of all three years ago Jeff was a newb, a luchbox, or a donkey, knew about hold'em and saw it on TV and wanted to learn how to play. You see we got together with a few of his friends once a while and played cards. Seven card stud, midnight baseball, follow the queen etc. Quarter ante and bet kinda stuff. Well after one of the sessions Jeff wanted to learn how to play hold'em, his step brother and I agreed to help. We basically treated him like a lunchbox and kept taking his money.

Fast forward to 2008, Jeff has a tight/aggressive game and has worked with his brother to develop it and it has developed.

Well to my original reason for writing, he called me today and we talked about his recent visits to Harrahs that started a couple of weeks ago. He told me he has won 13 of the last 15 sessions between the 2-5 NL game and the 5-10NL game. My thoughts flashed back to the time when we were playing quarter-fifty blinds and taking $100 a session from him so long ago. So now my eagerness to get back on the felt has increased ten fold...I'm freaking foaming at the mouth to get on a table and take my first pot down. He continues to say, the reason why he called is because he took down the biggest pot in his life. I know that Jeff had been playing 2-5 NL and mixing 5-10 NL in during 2007, he must have won several thousand at one time. That is what I say and he says just listen...

He is getting snapped off at the 5-10 game this weekend, he came into the Casino with about $4500, a good part of his bankroll. His first buy in was $1000, in three hands ALL GONE. He rebuys for $1500 an hour later...ALL GONE. He has $2000 in the game and has built it up to $2600, he is called for his seat in the 10-25 NL game.

"What!" I exclaimed.

He chuckled over the phone and continues with his story, he sits down with $2600, in about three hours he is up to $6500.

"You left, right?" I said

He smiled through the phone and continued his story. He is in the small blind and looks down at pocket fours. UTG pops it for $125, three or more call to Jeff who calls. The flop is K 4 6 two clubs. Jeff checks, UTG fires out $300, one caller to Jeff you raises another $1000. UTG calls (UTG has over $15,000 in front of him). Jeff wanted to take the pot down right here but is now very nervous and he felt that the guy knew that he was nervous. The turn is a red 9. Jeff is so nervous that he checks to UTG, who makes a big bet. Jeff contemplates and calls. The river brings a dry 8. Jeff looks at the guy and taps the table again! (My thoughts..."UGH!") The guy makes the hand movements and sorta mumbles "ALL IN." Here is what went through Jeff"s head...

"he has a set of Kings or he has nothing. Yes I see the set of sixes but I can not feel that he has that hand, not a set of 9's or 8's most certain that he does not have a straight. Why did he make the hand gesture and mumble all in when he could have value betted on the river to get me to pay him off if he had my set beat? I'm going to put him on air."

Jeff called and the guy asked him again if he had called and Jeff quickly said yes I call you. The guy folds and Jeff took down about $15,000. SO NICE!!!

Congrats Jeff for having the balls to sit in that game with so little money and being David and taking down a Goliath! Stay strong and thanks for the inspiration! Hell this could have been a death wish if it had done the wrong way...who knows?

Until next time stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Cub takes down a championship!

If you do not know about Cub, watch out, one of the nicest most friendly but deadly players at the table. I first met Cub in Tunica, Ms, and he showed me how nice he was. He had a very good read on me and when I made a move that looked as though I had the best hand he came over the top and shut it down. He even showed bottom pair to me, stating that he just needed a little protection. He is uncanny in his reading ability, subtle at the table but can talk the talk when it needs to be done. This dude can change gears at any time. He will push when it is right and he will sit back when it is right...they say that to be great you gotta have the timing right...Cub has been grinding for some time now and has found his mark, look for him to do big things throughout the rest of the year and years to come.

Good luck to my fellow bloggers during tourney time wish I could be with y'all.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!!!

Best Damn...Ultimate Bet poker Challenge with Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth

Anybody catch this show? I did and I liked it. I want to talk about three different things that the pros talked about but did not go into great detail about...I will try to.

The first example was the first elimination. I am going off of memory so bear with me. The format is six players at the televised table and at anytime the pros, Annie and Phil, will come out and eliminate a player. Around the televised table are four or five other tables playing but also waiting for their chance to not become eliminated. It seemed like the pros wanted people to play good poker not bad poker. If you played bad and were still a winner, still not good. This leads me into my first example.

Older gentleman, Rich, I believe, is in the small or big blind...early middle raises, hi jack seat calls and Rich looks down at 3 5 diamonds. Now Rich is the table chip leader he has hit two flops earlier with Q 10 suited and Q 10 off. According to some of the players and the pros his calls with those two hands were bad.
Okay, so Rich looks down and has 3 5 Diamonds and he calls the raise. What is the problem here? Okay, he is first to act into a solid raise, and a solid caller. The call with a weak hand by an amateur is wrong, there is no read of weakness by either player and the only thing you can do here is flop the nuts. My only thought is that Rich is a lunchbox and saw two suited small cards, figured that those two called with big ACES and if he his his hand they would have no idea.

The flop is, 2 4 6, with a diamond deep left draw (card card for a flush). What does Rich do? HE BETS into the raiser! Even if his thought process was what I talked about above, you DO NOT BET THE NUTS INTO THE PRE-FLOP RAISER, you let him bet which, with that flop will possibly be a continuation bet and the solid pre flop caller may also call so more money to take down.
Well he bets, like I said, and they both fold their hands. Annie and Phil run out immediately, explain what he did with that hand and the other two hands and elimanate the chip leader. They did a good job explaining what it was but lunchboxes just do not comprehend. He walked out but was upset because he was the chip leader! Thank you Phil and Annie for trying to explain to a lunchbox that though you have the chips now, the way you play they will be gone later.

My second example was Annie's boyfriend raises with AA he gets two calls, late middle who had KQ, I think and cut-off with 10 10. Now I like the play by smooth calling, no need to squeeze here at all. The flop is 10 high! Aces bet a nice bet, about 1/4 the pot, KQ folds, pocket tens calls. UGH!!!! WHY? Do you agree with the call? I do not, as Phill and Annie did not also. Why? Okay, what does the raiser have if you smooth call, you do not really know! 10 high, he could be making a continuation bet to try and take the pot there and now with your call, he gives up if you bet the turn, but if you do not bet the turn and he hits a miracle you are S.O.L.! If he does have the over pair and you just call he now has the chance to catch up without grief. If your plan is to push on the turn why not here on the flop? Find out where you are, if he does have the overpair your plan on the turn just happened a little earlier. If he does not have that over pair he will check you may bet and he folds. Put 'em to the test early because if it is an overpair they will call 8 out of 10 times.
Well they got it in and aces got cracked. He was not eliminated because it is hard to get away from that hand, plus the format is good play, boo to bad play. The pocket tens was not a bad play but I believe pros would have played it much better.

My final example was the quickest elimination. Under the gun raises, early middle re-raises. The button, a lovely lady, looks down at AK suited and folds. On the button with AK suited and folds! YES i repeated that statement. AK suited, though it is overated this is a great hand six handed, is either minimum call maximum push all in. What are you scared of? The UTG pushing after the re-raise and call? Gotta be aggressive with that hand especially on the button!

Well Annie and Phil run out and eliminate her for that bad play. Her arguement was that there was a raise and re-raise and she felt that her hand was losing. Okay, maybe but you HAVE THE BUTTON!!! See what happens and re-evaluate after the flop.

Can't wait until the next episode...Phil and Annie get after each other and Annie walks away pissed...there were a whole lot of bleeps too.

Until next time...stay nice as rice and mello as jello!!!

Table Stereotypes

So yeah, when I step to a table what does everyone see? Yep, BBM...big black man. Some are instantly intimidated, some want my money in their pocket right now, some want to outplay me because of that bully in highschool who I remind them of.

Hell we all look at the different people who come to the table and instantly put them into different categories.

African Americans or as I call 'em Black folk: They gamble their asses off, this comes from the idea that we like to play craps ANYWHERE! Is it a fair stereo type?

Asians...OH WEEE they play fast as hell! Do they? Again, it has been said that they are gamblers who will push it in fast and furious, they are deemed high end gamblers who want to get it fast or lose it fast. Fair?

Caucasians-Old guys...tight! Young guys...wild and loose. Fair?

Women-CAN'T PLAY A LICK!!! Fair?

I am not going to get into what I have been through but a lot of the factors I talked about are true, they are true about everyone that sits at that table. For some time I put people into categories by the way they even dressed. Now I have gotten away from that and use other methods to find the good ones and the luchboxes.

This is what you can do to get yourself away from the stereotypes which can cause you to lose money in the long run.

Check out how they stack their chips. One thing I do hate is the "Bitch Stack" what is that, when players start stacking their red chips in $50 increments and white chips in $10 dollar columns...ERRRR it eats me up! They are taking up room and it just looks silly. The reason they do this though is because they play at home games where the table probably moves a great deal so a smaller stack is a safer stack. Also, they probably do not know how to cut their chips so,"let me put them down like this...it's easier!" UGH! Yet, if they have their stacks nice and neat, they are not going to want to get out there and gamble too much, if the stacks are haphazard get ready to rumble.
How do they handle their chips, do they know tricks, do they mess with their chips at all? Players who know tricks have spent a lot of time at a table, does that mean they know what they are doing? Not always but if they know tricks they might be a little more patient. So look out for that.
When they bet, is it fast and furious or do they take their time. Sometimes a pro can mix up his game and bet fast too look fast, over time while sitting with him/her you will figure this out. If they take their time is it because they are drunk or are they thinking about what you have and how much they can extract from you? Be careful of the thinker.
Table talk, if they are constantly talking about the WPT and or the WSOP on ESPN...lunchbox! Get ready to get paid. If they are talking about outs, and possible this and or that...be very very careful with him/her. Also, just because they talk a lot of shit, like "Call me, you know you want to!" Most of the time, they are bluffing!
General table etiquette, playing in turn, not talking while out of the hand. If a player is doing this watch out for him/her. If the player does the opposite, he has gotten lucky many times and that is why he/she is at the table. Get ready to get paid.

So next time, look at how they play and not who they are, it just might help in the long run!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

WHA...YOU SUCK!!!!

So let me set up the title...I, again, am playing in a 1-2 NL game, it is the weekend before the main event at Harrah's and I hope that I run into some goofy lunchboxes. I sit down and am greeted by a regular who says the table is "tighter'n shit." Well after hour six and up only $120 I understood what he met. He had moved to the 3 seat and I was in the nine seat. At hour seven I was up a few hundred and this hispanic fella sits down in the ten seat and seems to play well until this hand. Seat 10 is on the button, four people limp to him, he does and the blinds call and call. SEVEN to the flop! The flop, 10c 10s 4h, everyone checks. The turn is a Jd, everyone checks to the button who finally bets, the small blind calls EVERYONE ELSE FOLDS. The river is a 2s, the small blind makes a VALUE BET. I do not remember what was in the pot but lets say, 7 at $2, $14, with the bet and call on the turn of about $15, so now about $44...the small blind bets...$20. WHAT DOES THE SMALL BLIND HAVE...AT LEAST...two pair Jacks up? I don't know, well button calls and shows, A4! Small blind has Q10...takes it down. Seat ten pays off three other people, but when the time is right to call, he folds! Well I have been playing pretty tight and at about hour 8 I get involved with a multi way raised pot, I think it was four callers five of us saw the flop. I told myself, I am in the hi-jack seat, that if I miss and it is checked to me,(hispanic guy is in the hand and is the button, because the actual folded), I am going to bet to win the nice pot. I miss, I make a nice Value bet, hispanic guy calls, everyone else folds...here is the board...2 7 9, I have J10, so I have a gutter ball, but I wanted to take it down. The turn is a KING, I bet again, another Value bet, want it to look like I want a call but etc etc. He calls again, I miss on the river and give up...he tables 2 3! I look at the hand and go "What is up with that...what made you call...do I have a tell or something?" He says why did you try to bet me off the hand? I go, what...there were three others I value betted to take the pot down, I bet into everyone you called with the worst pair. I actually was trying to explain something to a lunchbox...it did not penetrate his cortex! I asked, "do you understand?" He just says..."Value bet, what's that?" I get up, and say forget this...and I am pissed at myself off for saying this, but I may never see this guy again but I did say..."Wha...You Suck!" In response, and I left. I know that if I would have put more time in, he would have paid me off or someone else, but it was inevitable! UGH!!! I win $32. Until next time! YAAHHHHHH!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!